If you buy the rental in your name this will have an effect on your debt to income ratio.

My $0.02, if you are open to the idea of finding a new primary and turning your current home into the investment, this is 100% going to be the more cost effective method in terms of financing.

What be the best/creative ways to effectively reach out to these home owners?

With all this in mind, I would have to second @Brendan Miller's recommendation of heavily considering selling as it doesn't sound like there's much cash flow to offer an attractive reason to hold.The only other piece of this puzzle is to determine what your goal is so that you can effectively leverage the gains.

Even if you can’t get a loan, the owner may be willing to take payments over time, effectively being the lender for you. 

There is a psychological effect to knowing someone else wants what you want, and that tends to bring out multiple offers, so maybe your realtor is trying to counteract any effect there.

I brought about $10k to the game and to be able to effectively market for business I should have brought at least $25k. 

Think about the domino effect what you described will cause.

In that respect, longer term, I think the EM will have the exact opposite effect that the liberals intended (can you say negative unintended consequences). 

The current lease remains in effect until termination or mutual agreement.